The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.
~~~~~
This book was a wild ride from start to finish. I’ve only read one Riley Sager book in the past so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Apparently supernatural elements are somewhat common for this author which I didn’t know so I was very unsure what to expect with this book. The beginning did grind my gears a bit. The traumatized single woman with a drinking problem who doubts what they see and spies on their neighbours is a little bit OVERDONE at this point in time. Having that trope shoved in my face right off the bat made me feel like this book would be too similar to others with the same trope and that I wouldn’t enjoy it. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did because, even though the main character was generic, the plot was different enough from anything I’d read that it kept me hooked.
We follow Casey starting from a pretty exciting scene. She’s being questioned by cops and we wonder, what exactly happened to lead us here? After the cops leave, we find she has someone tied up in her bedroom. WHAT is going on?! After that exciting prologue we start from the top. We get a bit of Casey’s backstory and her intrigue in her neighbours across the lake. After that we bounce a bit from “Before” to “Now” with all the now moments having her interrogating this tied up stranger. That alone kept me intrigued. As Casey lives at a pretty remote lake where most people have gone home after the summer season, it has a pretty spooky atmosphere. While watching her neighbours, Casey starts to suspect that Tom isn’t as clean-cut as he’d have everyone believe. Then his wife, Katherine, disappears and Tom is acting fishy. Queue murder mystery music. We read only from Casey’s viewpoint but we jump in time quite a bit and also get some flashbacks of her own memories and even then, I did NOT connect the dots. So when things started going down, yes, I was completely shocked. I enjoy being shocked.
Characterization was a let-down. I’m so sick of the main character having some type of addiction problem that makes then unbelievable to their peers when they tell them their suspicions. There are other ways to have an unreliable narrator than to have them taking hallucinogenics or chugging straight liquor. Let’s explore those other ways. Please. Casey felt a little one dimensional because of the stereotype she was written as and I had a hard time relating to her, however, I did really like some of the side characters. Katherine was fascinating and I never knew what to think of her. Boone was a personal favourite of mine because he was so mysterious. Even some lesser characters were fascinating which begs the question: Why was the main character so cut and dry in comparison?
The plot was great. Building up the characters’ backstory as well as the history of the lake gave great context for small little mysterious that cropped up throughout the book that gave great “ah-ha!” moments. I loved that the “Now” chapters were very short and very ambiguous so we’re left questioning before being catapulted back into “Before” where it’s all currently going down. I also really enjoyed getting flashbacks within the “Before” scenes as it gave us more context without creating too many timelines to jump around in. I think the suspense was very steady and the mystery was very well done.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I’m still not sure if I enjoyed it because the writing was good or if it was just because it managed to really shock me but either way, I had a fun time reading it. I gave it 3 stars as it was a pretty good read but the main character needed a lot of work in my opinion.